$100 in 1915 is worth $2,347 in 2015,
because prices increased 2246.7% over that period, an average of
3.21% a year.
$100 in 1915 has
the same buying power as
$2,347
in 2015
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
2246.7%
Average inflation rate
3.21% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$2,347
Price difference ($100 base)
$2,247
CPI in 1915
10.1
CPI in 2015
237.017
Inflation in 1915
1.00%
Inflation in 2015
0.12%
$100 in 1915 → 2015
$2,347
$100 in 2015 → 1915
$4.26
What happened to prices between 1915 and 2015
Between 1915 and 2015, the Consumer Price Index went from 10.1 to 237.017.
Cumulatively, prices increased 2246.7%, which works out to an average of
3.21% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1915 bought what
$0.04 buys in 2015: the 1915 dollar
lost 95.7% of its purchasing power over
these 100 years.
Consumer prices rose 1.0% in 1915, the second straight year of near-flat
inflation before the wartime price surges of 1916 through 1918. The year’s
defining event had nothing to do with prices directly: a German submarine
sank the British liner Lusitania off the Irish coast on May 7, killing 128
Americans and hardening U.S. opinion against Germany two years before the
country entered the war. Economically, 1915 was a turning point of a
different kind. A recession that had dragged on since 1913 began lifting as
Britain and France placed growing orders for steel, munitions, and other war
materiel with American manufacturers, and U.S. exports to the Allied powers
climbed sharply through the year. That demand would keep building through
1916, eventually pulling prices up with it. On the regulatory
side, the Federal Trade Commission opened for business in March, taking on
enforcement of the Clayton Antitrust Act that Congress had passed the
previous fall. A first-class stamp still cost 2 cents, unchanged since 1885
and still two years from its first wartime increase.
Every 1915 amount converts to 2015 at the same ratio, 23.47: $1,000 becomes
$23,467, and $10,000 becomes $234,670.
Amount in 1915
Value in 2015
$1.00
$23.47
$5.00
$117
$10.00
$235
$20.00
$469
$50.00
$1,173
$100
$2,347
$500
$11,734
$1,000
$23,467
$5,000
$117,335
$10,000
$234,670
$100,000
$2,346,703
$1,000,000
$23,467,030
Inflation by spending category, 1915–2015
Between 1915 and 2015, food rose the most, up 2372.4%, while apparel rose the least, up 722.9%, against 2246.7% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1915
spending costs in 2015, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1915 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.21%
$2,347
Food
3.26%
$2,472
Apparel
2.13%
$823
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1915: core (all items less food & energy) (1957–), energy (1957–), housing (1967–), medical care (1935–), transportation (1935–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1915 to 2015
Prices climbed fastest in the 1910s, averaging 14.64% a year, and fell in the 1920s (1.8% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1915–2015 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1915, at end
1915–1920
14.64%
98.0%
$198
1920–1930
-1.79%
-16.5%
$165
1930–1940
-1.75%
-16.2%
$139
1940–1950
5.58%
72.1%
$239
1950–1960
2.08%
22.8%
$293
1960–1970
2.74%
31.1%
$384
1970–1980
7.82%
112.4%
$816
1980–1990
4.72%
58.6%
$1,294
1990–2000
2.80%
31.8%
$1,705
2000–2010
2.39%
26.6%
$2,159
2010–2015
1.68%
8.7%
$2,347
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1915
$100 from 1915 had already become $312 by
1965, on its way to $2,347 in 2015; each row shows the CPI, that
year's inflation rate, and the running value.
Within the span, inflation peaked at 18.0% in 1918, and prices fell 10.5% in 1921, the deepest deflation of the period.
Long periods are sampled every 5 years; the calculator above covers any pair of years.
The destination year: 2015
In 2015, prices rose 0.1% and $100 from 1915 had the buying
power of $2,347; the year's average CPI of 237.017 is the level
behind every 2015 figure on this page.
2015 was almost a year with no inflation at all. Consumer prices rose 0.1%,
the smallest increase since the 2009 decline, because energy prices kept
falling. Gasoline averaged $2.45 a gallon, down from $3.37 in 2014, and a
strong dollar made imported goods cheaper. The picture was different outside
food and energy: core prices rose about 1.8% as rents and medical costs
climbed.
Incomes finally showed real progress. Median household income reached $56,516,
a large jump from $53,657, and the median new home sold for about $296,400. The
federal minimum wage stayed at $7.25, and a first-class stamp stayed at 49
cents.
The Federal Reserve chose December to end its zero-rate policy, raising the
target range to 0.25–0.50% for the first time since 2006. It moved even
though headline inflation was far under 2%, arguing that the drag from
energy was temporary. Earlier, a currency shift in China in August had shaken
global markets and pushed oil below $40 a barrel. Prices in 2015 ended
the year barely above their 2014 level.
MLA: “Inflation from 1915 to 2015: $100 is worth $2,347 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1915-to-2015/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1915 to 2015. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1915-to-2015/